05 Apr 26:
We are starting up YouTube livestreams for the Historical Society to help engage our distant members. Can you help spread the word of our next event?
The Virginia State Navy and Isle of Wight County Mariners
April 11, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Join us virtually for a YouTube live presentation on the Virginia State Navy and Isle of Wight County Mariners: During the American Revolution, the Virginia State Navy—whose vessels were often called “Virginia Boats”—played a vital defensive role along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, drawing heavily on the maritime skill of mariners from Isle of Wight County and the lower James River region. These locally built craft were typically shallow‑draft galleys, sloops, and armed schooners designed for Virginia’s narrow rivers and creeks, allowing them to maneuver where larger British warships could not.
Isle of Wight County sailors, experienced in coastal trade and river navigation, crewed these vessels and used their intimate knowledge of local waterways to protect commerce, convoy supplies, and harass British forces. Together, the Virginia Boats, their Captains and Crew exemplified how local shipbuilding traditions and adaptive naval tactics supported revolutionary resistance on the water.
Maritime Historians Audrey and Kent Lewis are sailors, wooden‑boat builders and small‑boat restoration specialists whose work is dedicated to preserving and interpreting traditional small craft. As contributing authors to WoodenBoat magazine and Small Boats Nation, their historical research places small boats within their regional, economic, and social contexts, highlighting the often‑overlooked builders and mariners. Audrey and Kent advocate for small wooden boats as forms of living history, that carry forward the sea stories of our ancestral mariners.
